


Moment of Surrender

by orphan_account



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures, Pokemon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-20
Updated: 2012-05-20
Packaged: 2017-11-05 16:38:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/408620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She cannot return to him. That would be a sign of weakness. That would be surrender.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moment of Surrender

She is crumbling. She can feel it like she feels the wind lash against her face.

She stands like a statue on the tallest tree in Fortree City and hopes in vain (funny word, that one; it reminds her too much of what she'd given up, and why) that perhaps she will see a dot on the horizon. This dot would be of an air car, because he is far too glamorous to walk or fly like a normal person. Even with friends, he has always resisted the group's desire for outings that might disturb his hair.

Outings with her must have been an exception, she had decided long before. After all, he had been willing to ride on the back of her Altaria, or take a picnic high in the trees, or go camping.

That's the part that hurts the most, though. The knowing that he still wants her as much – if not more – than she wants him back.

_No_ , she tells herself firmly. She cannot return to him. That would be a sign of weakness. That would be surrender.

And as everyone knows full well, she never surrenders.

She does, however, break down and cry occasionally, something which the inhabitants of her home have noticed. She disappears for days at a time, brooding in the woods. She takes spontaneous trips to Lilycove, just to watch the sun set.

Yes, she is crumbling. Erosion, she decides. An effect of wind… of wind and water.

…

…

He knows all too well exactly how many female Gym leaders there are in the world. But there is one who stays on his mind all day, every day. And it kills him, because she's the one that got away. The one that's never coming back.

He has many things to deal with. Many decisions, none of them easy. First, he knows that Steven Stone is still awaiting his decision as to whether he wants to take the spot of Champion or not. And frankly, he's not sure. After all, Sootopolis City is more boring by the day.

But then there is that tiny thread of hope. That little ounce of optimism that says,  _she_ might  _come back_.

And then the cynicism kicks in and sarcastically says,  _Yeah, of course she'll come back. Women absolutely adore guys that can't even make up their minds about simple, easy choices._

Because that is the pointless choice he has to make. Whether to take every trainer's dream job, or to leave it behind for this stupid city in a volcano. Who made that decision, anyway? To live in a volcano. Like staring down the barrel of a gun.

Then again, love is like Russian roulette. Someone gets hurt.

Too bad it's him every time.

…

…

The next time she sees him, it's all business. His face is like a life line on a television screen, because he's out traveling and he can't be bothered to even meet with the rest of the Gym Leaders like a normal person.

Of course, she's already established that he is  _not_ a normal person.

For the second time in a while, though, she realizes exactly how different their opinions are. After all, he's a water trainer and it's completely natural for him to side with Team Aqua. Meanwhile, she trusts Flannery more than she trusts him, and so she picks their enemies, Team Magma.

According to Norman, though, they're both wrong. And so she stares in dismay as the normal-type leader walks out and crushes all her big plans to stop Team Aqua and washes away all his big plans to destroy Team Magma. Apparently, both are dangerous.

She notices, for the first time in a while, that she's once again competing with him in her mind.  _Ah, a tie_ , she decides.  _We're both correct_. That's another thing she hates – being wrong. So they're both correct. Team Magma has to be stopped, and so does Team Aqua.

Still, the end of the debate means that the television life line is turned off and carried away, and so she's once more left with a nostalgic sense of longing that makes her want to slap herself until she stops being so dang silly.

He's just a man, after all. Men are stupid. Nothing to worry about.

…

…

His aircar is speedy, even in the most casual of times. But now he is flooring the accelerator as though he is on the run for his life.

The young boy in his passenger seat comments, "We're going really fast!" and he just smiles and nods. After all, he's not going to explain to someone untainted by the battle of love  _why_ exactly he wants to get so badly to the meeting of the Gym Leaders.

Foolish of him to think that a boy wouldn't be afflicted just because of his youth.

As soon as he sees his paradise on the horizon (heaven would have no water; only clouds and tree tops) he is instantly scanning every tree, every house and bridge, for a girl with purple hair and a flight suit that rivaled the Champion's cape for flamboyance. But no, she is nowhere, and his face falls. Ruby, who is too busy exclaiming the beauty of the tree house creations, does not notice.

Beauty is boring, he decides, because it is so tame. He loves beauty, of course. There is no denying that.

But she has never called herself beautiful. And she isn't, not in the same sense that he looks for in a Pokemon. But she is fast and sleek and strong. She has the fire of a volcano and the passion of an artist, all wrapped up into one nimble body.

And that is something with which nothing beautiful that he has trained can compete.

…

…

Like a hawk, she sees him in his stupid car before he's even caught a glimpse of her. Stupid of him, really. After all, he's looking on the ground for a girl who lives on clouds.

That's exactly where she is when he arrives.

She's never been one to be distracted by something shiny, though. "Sky Attack!" she screeches, feeling her body plummet toward the ground and absolutely destroy Sapphire's Blaziken, knocking both it and its trainer flat on their backs. Another victory.

Then the air car swoops down and a second, much younger male notices the girl on the ground and it's all chaos from there because Sapphire does  _not_ like this boy and he clearly does not like her either. Or something like that.

She watches as her new disciple makes angry eye contact with the boy in the white cap, and she's struck by a strange sense of nostalgia, accompanied by a sense of foreboding. There's tension between Sapphire and this new boy like something that is quite familiar.

Her own great romance.

She feels for them, just then. After all, if they are anything like her and the man of her dreams (and nightmares, lately) then they will not end well. She has already proven that a pretty boy with the fighting skills of a legend does not match up with a girl whose one goal was always to become the greatest fighting machine in the world… and failed to do so.

Well, at least, that's what she'd like to believe. After all, it would be so much easier for her to pretend that she could never be with  _him_. To simply pretend it had never happened, and move on to someone like Brawly, who both shares her passion and energy.

But that's not how love works.

She makes eye contact with him. Not Ruby, since that boy is too busy glaring at his 'one true love' (she already ships them together, after all). Not the boy, but his master. His master in his white hat and teal clothing and impeccable vehicle.

Eye contact and the slightest nod lets her know that he also sees the resemblance in their two disciples.

She never surrenders.

But maybe she could make an exception.


End file.
